Overheard in the common room from a very important person in our department – “I know our students use PCs here, but I use a Mac and at home [or for my kids, for my mother, as a recommendation to friends, etc.] I use a Mac too…”I am not trying to sell Macs (or blacken Windows), I am just pointing out the hypocritical stance of how someone so high-up (and a Prof. to boot) can be treating herself and family better than her students whose welfare she should be concerned about (atleast on paper). That is just a part of human nature I suppose. But wait. This is not just here, but in most companies, top corporate officers and managers use Macs and brandish them shamelessly while hoi polloi employees (who are supposed to be taken care of under an equality scheme as per the offer letter) struggle with Windows. To be sure, the differences between, say, Windows and the Mac-OS are diminishing. But even the remaining small differences can be very important to people especially to show-off I presume. Apparently not important enough, however, to influence internal policies or it might just be a subtle display of power. No matter what, in a group dynamic, there are always such games going on. A tribal state of affairs really in a supposedly enlightened developed world-class department. Or maybe that is just me being too critical and satirical. Hmmm…